Brennan: Is Eugene Melnyk to blame for unsold playoff tickets?

The only logical explanation for fans negatively stealing so much of the spotlight from the Senators unexpectedly wondrous ride through the playoffs has to be a growing, general contempt for the team’s owner, for one reason or another.

That must be the main reason why, in the hours leading up to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final, there were still so many tickets available.

It was sad how the prospect of empty seats at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday night was a hot topic that overshadowed the fact the Senators were one of just three teams still having a shot at winning the Stanley Cup.

Can you imagine? The Senators still in contention for the NHL’s most prestigious hardware on May 23rd? They didn’t even make the playoffs last season. Not many thought they would this spring, either. Especially when they lost their No. 1 goalie for long periods while he helped his wife fight cancer, not to forget a likable leader to an 18-month battle with concussion problems.

Yet led by one of the most exciting players in the world, they still qualified. The way they then eliminated two Original Six teams from major U.S. markets — the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers — before battling the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins was epic stuff.

It also made for what is arguably the best season in franchise history.

Sure, the 2006-07 Senators reached the Cup final, but theirs was one of the top teams in the league. They had the most productive line in hockey, with Jason Spezza between Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley. The year before they finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference. They didn’t come out of the blue. They didn’t squeak into the playoffs. Leading up to the finals, they won each series in five games. They only had three overtime games. They didn’t provide the exciting, dramatic finishes this team did by winning six of seven sudden-deaths.

No, all this team did was write a near-unbelievable story — and yet the fans never really did get fully behind it.

Attendance, which was an issue all season, drew NHL-wide attention when there were almost 2,000 unsold tickets for the first game of the second round. And when almost that many remained available for Tuesday’s Game 6, alarm bells rang loudly again.

This would never be the case in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto or Montreal. Almost with certainty the same could be said for every U.S. team.

No, this is an Ottawa thing. But it also must be a Melnyk thing.

It’s hard to imagine empty seats at a playoff game if the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group that owns the Redblacks was also in control of the Senators. But then, it’s hard to imagine those local, shrewd businessmen making the same mistakes as Melnyk.

We’ve heard the long list of excuses for not filling Canadian Tire Centre in the playoffs, and most of them, if not all, land at the owner’s door.

Ticket prices are often mentioned. Those available, last we checked, ranged from $120-$912. Some people can understand the hike, given the importance of the games, but they went irate when Melnyk bumped parking prices by 10 bucks. Why? It looks like he’s trying to empty pockets. That’s tough to take from a guy who Canadian Business magazine had No. 79 on the 2017 list of the country’s 100 wealthiest people, with a net worth of $1.21 billion.

Brought to our attention Tuesday was the fact that, with all his pushing for LeBreton Flats, Melnyk constantly reminded everybody that Canadian Tire Centre is in the middle of nowhere. It also reminded them their TVs were in the middle of their living room.

Others were unimpressed with the way he fired Cyril Leeder, a founding father of the Senators, as well as others who have been with the organization for years. Even more so when he threw “previous management” under the bus by blaming it for attendance problems.

“Didn’t Leeder help find him a new liver when he needed a transplant?” a friend asked.

Maybe that partly explains why a video of Melnyk promoting the Organ Project was booed at a recent game, as tasteless as that was.

In Melnyk’s defence, I will argue with those who complain about his not adding better players. According to CapFriendly, the Senators are about $6.6 million under the ceiling, but their performance this season is proof that it takes more than money to be good.

Also, Melnyk is probably watching his dollars so he can sign Erik Karlsson to an extension. Because if he loses the captain to free agency in two years, there will surely be some hell to pay.

The bottom line is — like Melnyk or not — people who chose not to buy tickets that were available to playoff games were missing out on a great atmosphere, a great show, and therefore only really hurting themselves.

And maybe the team.

“Yeah, for sure,” Clarke MacArthur, the likable leader, said Tuesday morning when asked if a sellout makes a difference to the players. “The last few games at home, it’s been really rocking in here. It definitely gives you a boost of confidence. Maybe you feel stronger than you are out there. You feel faster than you are. But it definitely helps.”

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